I just finished this fab book by Sechin Tower.
I have to figure out some sort of ratings system, I know, I know, but if I one, Mad Science Institute, would be up there.
First off, I love his straight forward style. There is no extra malarkey. You get what you need to be there in the story, no extra puff, no extra wall paper.
He writes in a rapid fire way that really propels me through the novel.
His characters are intriguing. I like that he spends some time weaving in a bit of back story for the characters who really matter and giving you pure personality for the ones who are less important. Saves time and effort in remembering extra stuff that won’t matter when the character dies. Red shirt alert without being quite so obvious. (no offense to Star Trek).
Sophia, affectionately known as Soap, is accepted to the Mechanical Science Institute, less affectionately known as the Mad Science Institute. Housed on the campus of another university, the institute is devoted to the exploration, adaptation, and expansion of Nikola Tesla’s inventions. But as usual with massive power comes some asshole who wants it for himself and rather than settle into classes Soap is forced to do battle to protect the world with the help of her robot dog scorpion, her cuz, and some mad scientists.
I suppose one could classify this a YA work but I didn’t find it YA ish in the negative connotation. Yes, Soap is a young protagonist, her cousin however is not and this is half his book.
There is a lot of science jargon going on. But Sechin writes it in a way that I can almost believe is possible. However I will deduct half a milk dud, dog bone, or other ratings item for one of my pet peeves. He references a picture of Mark Twain holding a light bulb that isn’t connected to a wire because supposedly he was in Tesla’s lab testing wireless energy, I googled the picture, you can see the wire large as life. Bah. Historical lies. Minus half a light bulb.
On the plus side I did actually stop to read out bits to my husband who laughed so maybe he gets half a light bulb back for that. I’ll have to sleep on it.
I leave you with the link to Sechin’s page. The link to buy this book on Amazon. And a quote from Soap, “It’s much better if we keep it secret, because a bunch of teenagers and college students who answer to no higher authority would never misuse infinite power.”
Camp Nanowrimo Day 5 update:
525 words written while watching the old pink panther cartoon with my son, is it any good? I have no clue. But I did manage not to write dant dant dant dant dant anywhere but here so that counts right?
Total 3404/2500. Still ahead. How did that happen?
T.A. Henry 